The Stuff of Nightmares
by CanaryMoon
Summary: Rapunzel finally tells her parents exactly what happened on her last day in the tower.


**I've seen a lot of people doing the nightmare stories with Eugene and Rapunzel where one of them has a nightmare and cuteness and fluff ensue, and I really actually wanted to do that, but for some reason this came out instead. Now, Rapunzel's parents are quite possibly my favourite characters in the movie and I really really really hope I did them justice here. I felt weird giving them dialogue because they have no dialogue in the movie and that's one of my favourite things about them - they're just so emotionally powerful without saying any words at all. In fact, they're more powerful **_**without**_** words than they would be **_**with**_ **words. I just can't say enough about them to explain why I love them so much, but I love them A LOT and I hope you can see that a bit in this fic.**

/

The Queen always thought her life would be complete if only her daughter were returned to her.

But her daughter has returned, and she _is_ complete, but… there are still so many questions, so many things she doesn't know, so many things Rapunzel hasn't been ready to talk about. She and her husband know it'll take time. They know that she's been through something awful and they've told her they'll never pressure her to talk about it. If she wants to forget it ever happened and live as normal a life as possible, they are prepared to make themselves content with that.

When Rapunzel first appeared with Eugene, the King wondered aloud why her hair was now brown when it had been gold when she was born. Rapunzel had grabbed at a strand of it nervously, and Eugene had looked positively green. Rapunzel's eyes filled with tears, which she blinked away and said, "can… can we talk about that some other time?"

"Of course, dear," her mother had said, stretching an arm round her shoulders. The girl took a shaky breath and the conversation moved on.

Rapunzel has been home for three weeks now and still, she has not explained exactly what had happened to her. They knew she'd been locked up in a tower by some woman who pretended to be her mother, and that Eugene had somehow found her there, but the King and Queen knew that something else had happened between these two and that woman - something terrible that neither of them wanted to talk or even think about.

But it doesn't stop them from wondering what exactly happened. What could be so terrible, so traumatizing?

The Queen always thought she would rest easier when her daughter came home. But she doesn't. She's taken to wandering the palace halls at night, thinking things over and always, always ending up at Rapunzel's door, even when she doesn't mean to. When she does, she debates with herself a moment, then cracks the door open just a sliver, and peeks in at her sleeping daughter.

Daughter… after having the word rolling around in her mind all these years it ought not to be strange, but now that she has a real face, a real smile, a real person to apply it to… the word feels foreign and new.

_Daughter._

This night, when she steals a glance at the sleeping girl, she is not, as she usually is, reassured or warmed by what she sees. The girl is thrashing and mumbling and crying in her sleep. The Queen can't catch all of it, but she hears Eugene's name several times, and the word 'no', and what sounds like 'please' once or twice.

Despite the fact that the Queen has only had her daughter for a grand total of about a month, she knows how to be a mother. She does not hesitate to rush to the girl's side and gently wake her from whatever terrible nightmare she's trapped in. Rapunzel's head snaps around at her, eyes wide in alarm at first. But the Queen gives her a reassuring smile and puts a hand to her face. The princess shudders in a sigh of relief to see it's only her and takes a deep breath.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asks, sitting up. She's trying to be cheerful but her sleepiness and her leftover fear won't let her.

"No," the Queen answers. "I tend to pace through the halls when I can't."

Rapunzel looks worried for a moment. "Could you hear me in the hall?"

The Queen wonders how she knows she was talking in her sleep, but she doesn't ask. "No, I was just checking on you," she says.

Rapunzel nods like she understands. "Making sure I'm still here?"

This seems, to her mother, to be an odd thing to say, especially since Rapunzel doesn't seem to be surprised at all, and to be quite honest, the Queen wasn't sure how she'd react to her being in her room. "Well, yes, I suppose," she replies, "but it's more like I was making sure the last three weeks haven't just been a dream."

Rapunzel looks up, surprised. It's amazing, she reflects, how much different her mother's words make this seem. Gothel would have said 'yes, I was making sure you were here', and the Queen… she had said basically the same thing, but… it was so _different_.

While she's realizing this, her mother gives her a concerned look. "Bad dream?" she asks.

Rapunzel never liked to tell Gothel when she had a bad dream. Gothel would always make a sort of joke out of it. She would think of funny things to make it seem less scary, but to Rapunzel it always felt a little wrong. Sometimes it _did_ distract her and put her at ease about going back to sleep, but it always made her feel like Gothel didn't really understand dreams at all.

Part of her is afraid of her mother. It's all because of Gothel and she knows the woman in front of her is _nothing_ like her, but she's afraid all the same. But tonight she takes a chance, because while Gothel never talked about dreams - or at least never brought them up on her own - Rapunzel's mother has mentioned dreams several times, and Rapunzel's beginning to think that maybe the Queen understands. She nods and hugs her knees. "Yeah."

The Queen touches her arm reassuringly. Maybe it was the horrible dream she had, maybe it's the fact that she's there with her mother and everything should be perfect, or maybe it's just that she's so _afraid_, but Rapunzel bursts into tears.

Her mother, her _real_ mother, hugs her and strokes her hair and lets her cry into her shoulder for a long time. When Rapunzel is finally finished crying, and finished with the hiccupping gasps that follow, she wipes her red eyes on the sleeve of her nightgown and tries to smile. "Sorry," she says, not quite managing the smile.

"It's all right, dear," her mother says. "Everyone has nightmares."

Rapunzel sniffs loudly. "Not like mine," she says. She's not bragging and she's not complaining. She's merely stating a fact.

The Queen finds this terribly sad. But she manages to keep herself from crying too, if only for Rapunzel's sake. "Probably not," she agrees. "But most people aren't like you."

Rapunzel manages quite a small smile at that and the Queen rejoices to know she made her daughter feel even the tiniest bit better. They are quiet.

Eventually Rapunzel looks up from where she's been staring at her blanket-covered feet and speaks. "Mother?" It's a hesitant, halting word, that she doesn't say much anymore. She's afraid of it.

"Yes?" the Queen asks.

"You never… you never asked what happened at the tower. I mean, you never asked how we - how I got away. Don't you want to know?"

The Queen sighs and stares into space for a moment before answering. "Of course we want to know. But if it's too hard to tell, we won't make you."

"And… you didn't ask Eugene either?"

The Queen shakes her head.

"Well…" Rapunzel bites her lip. "Maybe… maybe you should go get Father, and I'll tell you both."

The Queen blinks in surprise. Part of her had expected she would never find out. She puts a gentle hand on her daughter's knee. "Are you sure, Rapunzel? You don't have to."

But Rapunzel's mouth is set in a stubborn line. "I'm sure," she says.

So the Queen leaves her alone for a moment and goes in search of her husband. She tries not to run through the hallways, but it's hard not to.

The King is not an easy man to wake in the wee hours of the morning. For that matter, he's not an easy man to wake at _any_ hour of the morning, so the Queen has to give him a good shake to get him up.

"Come on, dear, Rapunzel has something to tell us."

"Now?" he asks blearily, trying (and failing) to keep his eyes open.

"Yes, now," she whispers.

After a bit of grumbling, he slides his feet into his slippers and stands up with a yawn and a stretch. Walking through Rapunzel's doorway, he seems to be a bit more awake. "Are we having a family discussion?" he asks in rather good humour. "Shall I fetch Eugene?"

Rapunzel's eyes light up for a moment. Maybe it would be easier if he were here… but she doesn't think he'll want to talk about dying with her parents when he hasn't even spoken to her about it. "No," she says, disappointed. "I don't want to wake him."

Her father's about to mention that as far as he can tell, Eugene hasn't slept a wink since he got here, but a glance from his wife stops him. They settle themselves on the side of Rapunzel's bed, the King nearer the foot and the Queen near the head so that their daughter is in between them.

"Every birthday I had growing up," Rapunzel begins, "I always watched the lanterns, and when I turned eighteen, I asked Gothel if she would take me to see them for my birthday. I just wanted to go see them and then go right back to the tower but Gothel said no. And so I was just sitting in my tower, minding my own business, and Eugene came climbing in through the window."

The King seems to find this funny, and cracks a smile despite the serious looks on Rapunzel's and the Queen's faces. Rapunzel smiles back.

"It scared me and I had no idea what he was doing there so I hit him over the head with my frying pan," Rapunzel continues.

The King laughs quite heartily at that and the Queen gives him an exasperated look to hide her own smile.

Rapunzel grins sheepishly. "Then I stuffed him in my closet and barricaded the door."

Her father snorts and bites his lip to try to stop laughing. Rapunzel's own grin fades as she continues. "I thought, if I showed Gothel I had beat him up and locked him in my closet, she would see that I could handle myself in the real world and let me go see the lights, but she said she'd never let me leave no matter what, so I decided not to tell her about Eugene. I asked if I could have special paint for my birthday and she agreed, even though it would take three days for her to travel and get it. I thought I could go see the lights and get back before she ever knew I was gone. But I needed Eugene to take me. So I tied him up with my hair and when he woke up I convinced him."

Her father raises both eyebrows at that and can't keep from interrupting. "Convinced him?" he asks in surprise.

Rapunzel looks sheepish again. "Well… we made a deal. He'd take me to see the lights and back and I would give him back his stolen crown."

"You mean your crown?" the King asks.

The princess chuckles. "Yeah. Funny how that worked out. But anyway, he took me, and at first he was trying to talk me out of it, and then he took me to this smelly old pub but there were actually a lot of really nice guys there and they helped us escape from the guards, and then, well, long story short, he beat up some soldiers with my frying pan and we ended up nearly drowning and he hurt his hand and I healed it. And it turned out his name was actually Eugene Fitzherbert and not Flynn Rider."

"I like Eugene better," the Queen murmurs.

"Me too," Rapunzel agrees.

"Then what?" the King asks. So far he's enjoying this story immensely.

"Then he took me to the city, and these little girls braided my hair for me and we danced and we drew on the cobblestones with chalk and read books and ate cupcakes…" Rapunzel sighs happily. "And then we got in a boat and rowed out into the middle of the lake to wait for the lanterns. I suddenly realized that I was afraid. It was my dream to see the lights, and I was afraid that they wouldn't be what I thought they'd be, but he said they would be, and then I asked what I was supposed to do after I'd fulfilled my dream and he said I could find a new one. I didn't tell him that I already had a new dream and it was him and…" she trails off with another sigh and is silent for a minute.

"The lights really were everything I dreamed they would be," she says quietly. "And Eugene had two lanterns for us to light, and I gave him the crown back, and for that one moment, everything was perfect. But he saw his old… er… friends on the shore, and he thought if he gave them the crown they might leave us alone, but Gothel had told them about my hair, and they decided that was worth more than the crown, so they knocked him out and set it up so the soldiers would find him." Rapunzel looks terribly sad here, and her mother gives her shoulder a squeeze.

"I thought he'd run off with the crown and left me all alone," she says, her eyes welling up. "And the Stabbingtons told me he had. But when they came after me, Gothel stopped them, and it seemed like she was coming to my rescue, but it was really all her plan to get me to _want_ to go back to the tower. When we went back she unbraided my hair and threw out all the flowers the girls had put in it. But I didn't show her the flag Eugene bought me, so when she went to make supper I pulled it out to look at it and I realized I'd been painting your royal crest all over my walls for years. And I realized that she wasn't my mother at all." Rapunzel's voice is hard now, and there's more anger in her eyes than fear or sadness. "She tried to deny it but I could see in her face that it was true. I told her I was leaving and she'd never use my hair again, and somewhere around there the mirror broke… She said I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to because…" she swallows hard, "because Eugene was going to be executed and…" she sighs heavily.

This time her father reaches out to take her hand.

The princess scrubs at her already swollen eyes with her free hand. "I couldn't get away from her. She chained me up and I had no idea how I was going to escape but then I heard Eugene yelling for me and I knew he must have gotten away from the soldiers. I hoped he'd think I wasn't there and leave because Gothel got this look on her face and I knew she was going to do something horrible to him. I wanted him to leave so bad." She sniffs. "But she threw my hair down for him and he climbed up it just like I knew he would and he came in saying something lovely, and he was just so glad that he thought I hadn't given up on him, but…" She begins to cry in earnest now, burying her face in her hands. "But she had… she had her knife, and when he came in she snuck behind him and…" she's crying too hard to finish, but she doesn't need to. The King and Queen can put two and two together.

Rapunzel's voice is choky and faltering. "I told Gothel I'd… I told her I'd go with her if she'd just let me heal him. I promised I'd never… never try to get away. I think he told me not to, but I was barely listening. I just… I just wanted her to agree."

She cries again until her father prompts, "did she?" He thinks it's obvious that she did because Eugene is alive and well, but he knows something else must have happened because Gothel is gone.

Rapunzel nods. "She did. I was just… just about to heal him and he kept telling me not to but I told him it was going to be okay, even though it wasn't. Just before I sang, he touched my hair and I thought… oh, I don't know what I thought, maybe that it was my last chance to just look at him so I forgot what I was doing for only a second…" she takes a deep breath. "He used the glass from the mirror. He… he cut off my hair," she says.

There's a slight gasp from her mother and her father looks taken aback. They're not entirely sure why, but this seems shocking to them. "He knew it'd lose it's power that way. And if it had no power, Gothel had no reason to take me away." Her face crumples. "But I couldn't heal him either."

Tears are streaming down her cheeks. "It all turned brown, and I guess Gothel's age caught up with her because she got all wrinkly and her hair turned white. Pascal tripped her and she fell out the window." The levelness with which she manages to say this is remarkable, but it leaves her almost immediately. "At first I was completely shocked, but I realized I had to… try to heal Eugene and I tried… I tried to sing but it wouldn't work and he…" she puts her face down on her arms and weeps. "He _died_," she sobs, after a time, "he _actually_ died."

She continues like this while her parents stare, first at her, then at each other, their faces laden with a hundred different emotions. So this was what Eugene had gone through for their daughter. So this was what he'd given up for her. They'd warmed up to him quickly, but this gives them a whole new level of respect for him.

Rapunzel is beyond distraught. "He died right there," she bursts out, "his head in my lap, and I was holding onto him like I could make him stay, and there was glass all over the floor, and my stupid, _useless_ brown hair was all tangled around us and I… I just…"

"Oh, Rapunzel, dear," her mother soothes, and wraps her arms around the sobbing girl. Her father's strong arms envelope them both and they're not sure how long they all sit there and cry.

But eventually Rapunzel runs out of tears and sits up, pulling her parents up with her. They wipe their tears away, but she doesn't bother. Her eyes are too sore and her face was already so wet that she can't tell that anymore has been added to it.

"But Rapunzel," her mother says gently, "everything must have turned out fine. Because you're here now, and Eugene and Pascal are downstairs in the library as we speak, and… and Gothel is gone, isn't she? How did that happen?"

"I know." Rapunzel gives a very wet, unattractive snort. "I know. I'm not sure what exactly happened. I guess I must have had a little magic left, because I was crying all over Eugene and I just started singing, and then there was this light and… I don't know… he just woke up." She runs her hand through her hair. "But I don't have nightmares about that part. I have nightmares about him…" She swallows hard and steels herself up to say the word. "About him dying."

The Queen rubs her back and the King ruffles her hair and, despite her nightmare, despite how much it hurts every time she dreams about that day in the tower, Rapunzel can't help but feel glad for this moment, because like this, in this moment, everything is perfect. Her parents are with her, Eugene and Pascal are only a few minutes away… she is content.

She sighs again. "Well, now you know, I guess," she says, just for the sake of saying something.

Her father ruffles her hair again and smiles. "You know, I had wondered why Eugene never sleeps. But I don't think I would want to sleep either if I were him." He shudders, completely missing the admonishing look his wife sends him, or the indignantly confused one on Rapunzel's face. "Will you be all right now, do you think, Rapunzel?" he asks.

"I'll be fine," she says, slightly distracted. Then she squashes him in a hug and kisses his cheek. "Thank you."

He squashes back (but not _too_ hard) and kisses her head, then releases her so her mother can do the same. Rapunzel stays sitting up in bed, lost in thought, as he leaves the room, followed by his wife.

When he's just out of earshot, the Queen leans back through Rapunzel's doorway. "Rapunzel," she whispers. "Perhaps you ought to go talk to Eugene."

Rapunzel nods. "Yes. Perhaps I should."

/

**So I didn't really mean for this to turn into a recap of the movie, but I wanted to include the King and Queen's reactions to certain parts of the story, so I didn't end up cutting it out, even though I was going to. I'm almost done a second part, involving Eugene and Rapunzel (and Pascal!) ****Hope you like it! ;)**


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